Abbott has deluged Washington, D.C., and New York City with thousands of asylum seekers who have crossed the United States border through Texas in an attempt to antagonize the Biden administration into creating stricter border policies. Thus far, 1,000 migrants have been sent to New York City and over 7,000 sent to the nation’s capital.
A video covered by CBS New York shows migrants sent from Texas and arriving in New York wearing wristbands with barcodes. The video, which was captured at Port Authority Bus Terminal on Wednesday morning, has sparked outrage amongst city officials, who see the treatment of the group, which includes 237 men, women, and children, as a form of degradation.
"Gov. Abbott is bar-coding people and treating them as less than human, as if they were cattle," said Manuel Castro, the city's Commissioner of Immigrant Affairs. "I was incredibly shocked when I saw children with bracelets and bar codes and security personnel treating them as less than human beings."
The wristbands, which had not been seen by N.Y.C. officials before Wednesday, were removed from the migrants as they disembarked at the bus terminal.
"It appears to us that asylum seekers are being asked to wear these bracelets with these barcodes to intimidate them, to scare them into remaining on these buses until they arrive in New York City," Castro said.
"We know that Gov. Abbott has been trying to dehumanize people, trying to foment anti-immigrant hatred, and while New York will continue to welcome asylum seekers, it's also our moral responsibility to denounce this kind of behavior by Gov. Abbott," he added.
A spokesperson for Abbott said the barcodes were “standard protocol” by the Texas Division of Emergency Management, and referred to the N.Y.C. officials’ outrage as “baseless lies and fear mongering”.
“This process also helps ensure we are only transporting migrants who have been processed and released by the federal government with federal documentation that allows them to move about the country,” the Abbott spokesperson said.
The incident adds to the ongoing feud between Adams and Abbott, which reached its peak when Adams said he would send a “bus load” of New Yorkers to Texas to campaign against Abbott, who is running for a third term. Adams’ attack on Abbott is due partly to the fact that resources such as housing, food, and clothing in his city are being stretched thin by the large number of migrants sent his way.
Renae Eze, campaign Press Secretary for Abbott, accused Adams of hypocrisy, while Abbott himself wrote a flippant op-ed about the N.Y.C. mayor.
"Adams talked the talk about being a sanctuary city, welcoming illegal immigrants into the Big Apple with warm hospitality," Abbott wrote. "Talk is cheap. When pressed into fulfilling such ill-considered policies, he wants to condemn anyone who is pressing him to walk the walk."
"Someone get this man a dictionary," responded an Adams spokesman. "Hypocrisy is claiming you love America and then decrying the words on the Statue of Liberty. To be clear, Mayor Adams and New York City will continue to welcome asylum seekers with open arms. These individuals and families have been through hell, and they deserve more than being used as political pawns by a governor who cares about nothing more than re-election."
Abbott’s brazen policy may mean asylum-seekers will stay in the United States for longer. Data collected by Syracuse University shows that New York courts have approved over 70% of asylum relief applications since 2001, while Houston and Dallas have denied over 72% of those same or similar requests.